Report:Transit for Persons with Disabilities Improving; More is Needed

U.S. public transportation systems have made great inroads in the services they provide to persons with disabilities, especially since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, but a chronic lack of funding means that much more remains to be done.

That was a major finding of The Current State of Transportation for People with Disabilities in the United States, a report released by the National Council on Disability at a June 13 Capitol Hill event hosted by the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. NCD is an independent federal agency that makes recommendations to the President and Congress to enhance the quality of life for all Americans with disabilities and their families.

The report cites a 2002 U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics report stating that, because of funding shortages, six million Americans with disabilities have difficulties getting the transportation they need.

The continued underfunding of public transportation directly limits the mobility of large sections of the disability community who are unable to use a car, the report states, and this problem will not be fully addressed without a fundamental shift in funding priorities to support a comprehensive, accessible public transportation system.

Railroads started posting these performance measures in 1999 in response to shipper requests that arose during a series of meetings conducted with shippers in 1998. They are updated on a weekly basis, White told D:F last week.

AAR hosts the site, he said, but the data is inputted directly by the railroads.

The reporting roads are BNSF, CN, CP, CSX, KCS, NS and UP. Canadian National currently holds the best average speed, at 26.7 mph. Last week they reported 26.3 mph.

CSX is the worst, at 19.9 mph  but the carrier improved over last week, which was 19.1 mph.

Shippers receivers and others  like stockholders  can take a look at the numbers and see how many total cars are on the line they are interested in.

Whats the average terminal dwell time? How about a bill of lading timeliness? As we said, esoteric numbers, but they also indicate how well a railroad is performing.

The website, which AAR maintains for the railroads, urges readers to refer to both the general definitions and the railroad-specific definitions to gain a complete understanding of the measures being reported by each railroad.

It the writers add, The reports are most meaningful when used to monitor current trends in each railroads performance. Major differences in the railroads physical networks, traffic patterns, service territories, operating strategies, and even local weather conditions limit the insight that can be gained from road-to-road comparisons.

Railroad performance measures are published each Wednesday at 2:00 Eastern Time.

The average train speed, according to the site is stated in miles per hour, and is calculated by dividing train-miles by total hours operated. System-wide average train speeds are given for intermodal, coal unit trains, manifest, grain unit trains, multilevel and auto, and the average of all trains.

The average terminal dwell time is the average time a car is at the specified terminal location expressed in hours.

The measurement begins with a customer release, received interchange, or train arrival event and ends with a customer placement (actual or constructive), delivered interchange, or train departure event. Stored, heavy bad ordered, and maintenance of way cars are generally excluded from the calculation.

Oh, and whats Bill of Lading Timeliness?

It represents The number of shipments released by customers to the railroads without shipping instructions. It is a system-wide measure that is calculated by dividing the number of cars released without a bill of lading by the total number of cars released.

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In an effort to expand the on-line experience at the National Corridors Initiative web site, we have added a page featuring links to other rail travel sites. We hope to provide links to those cities or states that are working on rail transportation initiatives  state DOTs, legislators, governors offices, and transportation professionals  as well as some links for travelers, enthusiasts, and hobbyists.

If you have a favorite rail link, please send the uniform resource locator address (URL) to the webmaster in care of this web site. An e-mail link appears at the bottom of the NCI web site pages to get in touch with D. M. Kirkpatrick, NCIs webmaster in Boston.